An inbound call center serves a varying load of calls and often has agent time available in excess of that which is needed to provide a desired level of service to inbound (incoming) calls. A way of maintaining a steady and productive use of the agent population in the call center is to blend (interleave) outbound (outgoing) calls with inbound calls. When the inbound call load is heavy, few or no outbound calls are placed. When the inbound call load is light, the number of outbound calls is increased to maintain a steady workload for the agents.
It has become the practice to monitor various factors of the inbound call workload and inbound workforce to determine how many outbound calls and of what type can be launched for servicing by “blended” inbound/outbound agents. These factors include the number of available agents and the skills which each supports, how long each busy agent has been servicing a call so far, and how likely an outbound call is to be answered by the call recipient. The prior art uses predictive pacing algorithms for outbound calls to keep a steady flow of outbound calls in time for the anticipated availability of agents in the near future. These systems predict the rate at which outbound calls can be serviced based on the expected rate at which agents will become free to handle them. However there are factors, such as when precisely each agent will complete their current call and become available for new work, that are not in the control of the system and are difficult to predict. This makes these predictive algorithms prone to error. In some cases, the recipient will answer an outbound call, but no agent will be available to service it. In other cases, agents will become available, but no outbound calls will have been answered and made available for servicing. Error adversely affects the operation of the call center: Too many answered calls lead either to delay in connecting the answering party to an agent or to too few agents being available to handle the inbound calls, while too few calls launched or answered yields idle agents and lower agent productivity.